The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker

by Lauren James

  He nodded, a minuscule movement. “Fetch her.”

  Vini was still leaching fear from her arm, and Rufus pushed his hand away, like he would a dog begging at the dinner table.

  The Harriet of a week ago would have asked “Is that it?” but she knew better. If they wanted Qi, then it wasn’t for a cup of tea and a chat. She wasn’t going to escape unscathed. They were asking her to give up Qi in Harriet’s place.

  She didn’t bother asking what Qi had done. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t negotiate. Either she gave Qi to them, or they destroyed her. The Tricksters might be trapped in the basement, but they had strong people on the outside, like Greg. If they wanted Harriet gone, there would be nowhere she could hide.

  Harriet looked inside herself, questioning whether this was something that she could do. If the Tricksters were planning to hurt Qi, then she would be complicit in that.

  But then, why shouldn’t she do it? What was she holding back for? Qi was already suspicious of her, so it wasn’t like she was losing an alliance. Plus, the thought of helping Rufus strangely fed the hunger of the unstable energy brewing inside her.

  For years, Harriet had been ignoring the urge to bite and tear, to pounce, pushing that desire down into the darkest corners of her brain, limited to imagination only. But the fresh energy was giving her darkest desires the space to grow.

  She had devoted so much of her effort to hiding that part of herself away, and for what? She’d burned her bridges with Rima and the others. They had decided that she wasn’t good or kind or one of them.

  Harriet couldn’t stand the way they had looked at her – appalled and disgusted, like she was a monster. If it was all over with them, what was the point of even trying to be normal any more?

  She might as well indulge herself, in the only way that she could. Harriet would give them something to really be afraid of.

  There was no one left who would care if she burnt herself to the ground and reinvented Harriet Stoker anew.

  “Give me ten minutes,” she said, relief flushing her with pure adrenaline. “I’ll bring Qi to you.”

  Rufus folded his arms, a small smile playing at his lips. “Good girl. And don’t bother running off. We’ll get Greg to track you down again if you don’t come back. He can be … hard to refuse, as I’m sure you’ve found.”

  Harriet met his gaze, holding her bleeding eyelid open with a huge effort. “I understand you perfectly.”

  Rufus is working so hard, in every moment of every conversation. He wants to be just like his older brother. He needs his approval, even when he’s long gone.

  He’s always been that way. I’ve checked. I’ve watched them play together as children. Pretending to be centurions and savages, with blue paint and wooden shields, back when Vini was a baby. Rufus let his brother order him around, hunt him down and beat him up. Rufus idolized him.

  He was a sweet boy, until he realized how much more fun it was to be cruel. He learnt from his brother, just like Harriet is learning now.

  Circles. It’s always circles.

  HARRIET

  As she walked up to Qi’s room, Harriet formed a vague plan for sneaking up on her while she was invisible. She would push an emotion into her then, but she hadn’t decided which one yet.

  Now that she’d made her decision to go through with this, she was resolutely refusing to question or second-guess herself. She knew she’d never manage to do it, if she thought too hard.

  Harriet held her breath until she became invisible, and stepped through Qi’s door. Something immediately punched her in the chest. She staggered backwards, electrocution ringing through her jaw and down her limbs. The doorway was glowing with a pure white light, like the barrier on the basement door did when she stepped through it. But this one hadn’t let her through.

  Rubbing at her jaw, she touched the light with one finger. A stabbing pain ricocheted into her palm. She pulled back, hissing. The light was sparking around the doorway, growing brighter and brighter. Her hair started to sizzle, filling the air with the acrid scent of burning.

  “Who’s there?” Qi called from inside.

  Harriet took a moment to let the pain recede, and then said, in a chirpy voice, “It’s Harriet! I think your door is broken! Can you let me in?”

  She gave a little false laugh, high-pitched and girly.

  “Harriet. I see.” Qi’s voice was inscrutable.

  “I have an urgent message for you from Rima,” Harriet added, when the light started to glow even brighter. “You’d better let me in!”

  “You know what, Harriet? I don’t think I will. You’re up to no good again.”

  Harriet sunk back against the opposite wall, furious and terrified. This wasn’t going to work. Qi had been suspicious of her from the beginning. There was no way that she was going to believe her now.

  She’d failed.

  “Really?!” she said, laughing through a snarl. “You’re making a mistake, you really do need to let me in! Rima needs your help!”

  “Goodbye, Harriet,” she said, quiet and firm.

  Harriet pictured herself punching Qi. She replayed the image in her mind, turning it over and over like a boiled sweet on her tongue, embellishing it, adding spitballs and bite marks and clawed fingernails separating skin from flesh.

  She tore her apart in her mind. And then she set the image free.

  She smiled.

  “No worries if you’re busy!” she said, cheerfully, hiding her teeth and claws and nails. “Sorry to bother you!”

  She hadn’t even come close. She was going to have to go back to the basement empty-handed. The Tricksters would send someone after her if she didn’t return to pay off her debt. Someone worse than Greg, with his mysterious aura that made her do whatever he said. It was starting to occur to Harriet that she always seemed to make bad decisions when he was around. It had been Greg who’d made her walk into the basement just now, totally unprepared for what was waiting for her. He’d done something to make her less alert.

  She could see how someone could use up all their energy trying to pay back the Tricksters. Once they had you, there was no way out.

  Well, if she couldn’t give Qi to them, then someone else would have to do. It would be a distraction, so they didn’t quench their bloodthirst on Harriet. Choosing a first-floor door at random, she turned invisible and walked inside. A boy was dozing on a rotting mattress. It was Kasper’s rowing mate who’d accused Harriet of staying at Hotel Back Yourself. Jonny.

  She touched the base of his neck, deciding to send him some lust, with a bit of loneliness. That should do the trick.

  A shudder ran through Jonny when she pushed the emotions inside him. He groaned. Making herself visible again, she shook him awake. “Hey, pal.”

  His eyes dropped to her chest. “Er…” His pupils were already blown wide, and there was a bulge in the front of his trousers. “Hi,” he replied in a hoarse voice.

  She draped one hand across his chest, and purred, “Hi. Are you busy? Would you like to come –” she paused, watching him swallow – “for a walk?”

  “Anywhere,” he said on an exhale, and stood up. She took his hand, smiling over her shoulder at him.

  She hovered outside the basement door, while he stared at her arse. Could she really do this? There was no coming back from this, or way of denying it – she was sacrificing a stranger, wholly and undeniably. But wasn’t she fighting for her own survival here?

  She stepped through the lightning barrier, hoping desperately that it would let her out again. Jonny followed her in, leaning against her back and breathing in the smell of her neck. Rufus and Vini were waiting for her.

  “I couldn’t get Qi,” she admitted, all her muscles braced for attack. “But I brought you someone else.”

  Rufus curled his lip. Jonny moaned and licked her neck in a haze of lust. She nudged his head away.

  She couldn’t tell if Rufus was furious or just disappointed.

  There was a pause, and then Ruf
us laughed. “Of course you couldn’t catch Qi. She’s far stronger than a little thing like you.”

  They’d been setting her up to fail?

  He flapped his hand at her. “Don’t look so traumatized. You tried your best. You can live for another day. And look at this independent thinking, bringing us a snack instead. Quite a self-motivated worker we’ve got here.”

  Vini tugged Jonny away from Harriet. “You might want to wait outside,” he told her.

  As soon as his skin stopped touching hers, Jonny finally paid attention to their surroundings. “What…?”

  Harriet stepped out of the room just as the Tricksters descended on him. She stood outside and listened to the screams. There was something immensely satisfying about causing pain, emotional or physical. It made her feel alive again, drowning out the energy buzzing inside her. She wasn’t pretending to be normal, not any more. She was something … better. Something stronger.

  She gave the Tricksters five minutes, until the boy went silent. Then she went back inside.

  Rufus had a sated curve to his mouth. Vini was snoring blissfully, curled up in a puppy pile with some other ghosts. Both Tricksters were glowing a little bit brighter.

  “That hit the spot.” Rufus raised his arms above his head and bent backwards, long and luxurious. He flicked his eyes at Harriet. “We’re even. Now get out of here. If it turns out there’s anything else which you’ve … forgotten, we’ll find you.”

  “I can go?” Harriet was surprised. She’d been expecting them to say that one random boy didn’t equal Qi. From what she’d heard, she’d thought they’d ask for another two or three ghosts. But Rufus seemed satisfied already. It was like he hadn’t been interested in getting her to pay off her debt at all. Had he been testing her? To see if she’d actually go through with it?

  And she’d done exactly what he wanted, like an obedient little lamb.

  “You can leave. Unless you’d like to make another deal altogether…? There’s still a lot I could teach you.” His voice was like tar, slick and rich and thick enough to trap her.

  “No, that won’t be necessary.” Her eye was still crying out in pain.

  “No hard feelings, hey?” He ran a hand through his silvery white hair, the colour that perfectly matched her own. “It’s just business.”

  Harriet’s mouth tightened. “I’m not sure I have any feelings at all. Thank you for all your help. Goodbye.”

  Before Rufus could reconsider their temporary peace, she walked out. Greg was hovering nervously in the hallway, holding a wriggling mouse spirit like a joint. The sight of it made Harriet’s mouth water. The more energy she consumed, the hungrier she seemed to get.

  When he saw her, his worried face brightened into a beam. “You survived!”

  “You could have warned me what they were like. I was totally unprepared.” Harriet fixed her hair, which had been roughed up during Vini’s stranglehold. Her eye was unsalvageable, but there was no reason the rest of her shouldn’t look good. “What do they even want a phone for, anyway? Why do they care that it ran out of battery?”

  Greg shrugged. “I heard that they were looking up a woman on the Internet. Cynthia down in the basement said it must be someone they knew when they were alive, but I swear they’ve been dead for hundreds of years. Everyone they know must be long gone by now, right?”

  “Whatever,” Harriet said, dully.

  Greg squinted at her. “You know you’ve got blood in your eye?”

  “Yes, Greg, I know that there’s blood in my eye.”

  Did ghosts heal? How long did it take? She’d have to ask someone, after she’d worked out what to do next.

  “Huh. It doesn’t suit you,” he said.

  “Would you piss off, Greg? I’m taking this.” She tugged the mouse spirit out of his loose, surprised fist. “Thanks for nothing.”

  “No need to take it out on me. I was just following orders.” Greg turned to leave, dreadlocks flicking over his shoulder.

  She was too eager to be ashamed, and slumped against the wall to absorb the mouse. It was only a small boost to her energy. Once again, nothing happened when she tried to force her power to manifest.

  No matter how useful her invisibility and emotional manipulation were, she still hadn’t found a power that let her leave the building. There weren’t any Shells left, either, so she’d have to be creative.

  Harriet remembered how Kasper had possessed that police officer. He’d pulled her inside the body when she’d been on the verge of disintegrating. It had protected her.

  Was there a way that she could get him to do that again? They could walk right out of the building, safe and snug inside the living body, all the way to her parents.

  She could manipulate his emotions to convince Kasper that he wanted to possess a human, to show his love for her.

  It was the perfect plan – or it would be. If all of the humans hadn’t already left Mulcture Hall. The police had finished dealing with her corpse and packed up. There was no one left for her to hitch a lift inside.

  Greg was halfway down the corridor by the time Harriet realized that he could help her. “Wait,” she called after him. “Don’t go.”

  Greg turned and raised one eyebrow at her. “You’re sending me mixed signals here, princess.”

  “Can you find me a human? An alive one?”

  He smirked. “What will you trade for it? You don’t have that lovely phone any more.”

  Harriet huffed and touched his elbow. He leant into her, grin widening. He didn’t know she had a power yet, so he didn’t suspect a thing. By the time she had twisted his emotions, it was too late for him to stop her using his own power.

  She pushed admiration and love into him, with a hint of desperation. That should do the trick. He was clearly taken by surprise, because a misty look entered his eyes.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to help me? If you could find me a human, I’d be ever so grateful.”

  Greg swallowed. “I’ll be right back, princess.”

  Harriet is following in her family’s footsteps. She always has. I’m guilty of it, too. We can hardly hold that against her.

  When the Tricksters trapped Lisa in a debt, she wasn’t as ruthless as Harriet. They asked her to bring them a sacrifice too, but she refused and gave up her own life instead.

  I reached through to the past to try to help Lisa, afterwards. I thought I could nudge things in a different direction. But there’s only so much I can do.

  It started because Lisa wanted a pet owl. Rima isn’t the only one with a pet – Felix had a badger at one point. Or maybe he’s going to have one? I forget.

  For years, Lisa had tried to find a dying animal and tame its spirit, but she’d never had any luck. Eventually, she went to the basement. She didn’t realize what the Tricksters were really like, or how dangerous their black market could be.

  She struck a deal with them to get an owl spirit that a ghost had been training up, in exchange for using her power on the black market ten times. Her power let her change her physical appearance – she could make her hair red or blonde or pink, add freckles or dimples or beauty marks. She could do it to other people, too, but it took a lot more focus. She had to maintain the changes constantly, or they’d revert back to their original form.

  Greg came to find Lisa the week after she got her owl, which she named Jujanna. Rufus wanted her to use her first favour to change his eye colour to green. Lisa did it happily enough. It only used a tiny part of her energy to make sure the green didn’t disappear. (The new colour did suit him, actually. It was a great contrast to his white hair.)

  A week later, Vini asked her to straighten his teeth. Lisa agreed, a little more reluctantly. A week after that, she removed a bump from Vini’s nose from the time he’d been punched over an unpaid bar bill when he was alive.

  Lisa was starting to feel a little weaker now. The constant drain on her energy was catching up with her. Then Rufus asked her to add silvery highlights to his white hair
.

  Lisa started fading. If she kept this up, she would become a Shell long before the tenth favour. She asked if she could pay off her debt in another way.

  Rufus lit up. This must have been what he was waiting for. “You know that boy Kasper Jedynak, don’t you? I’d be happy to accept his power instead of yours. In fact, one favour from him would be enough to wipe out the rest of your debt.”

  Lisa was confused. “Do you know what his power is? I’m not sure it would do much for you. He can … possess humans.”

  “I think that will work perfectly. Why don’t you ask him to come and see me? Otherwise, I have another favour I’ll be needing from you tomorrow morning.”

  “I can’t give up any more energy.” Lisa turned pale.

  “Kasper can come along any time – my schedule is completely free,” Rufus replied.

  Lisa left, disturbed.

  I’ve watched her story a few times over, and I think that Rufus planned this from the beginning. The bargain was designed to put Lisa in debt, beyond what she could afford. Then all he had to do was wait to pounce.

  But Kasper refused, very firmly, to use his power. He told Rufus that he was willing to help pay off Lisa’s debt – but not by doing that.

  He wasn’t terrified of them, not yet. That would come later, once he’d seen what they could do. For now, he was just annoyed.

  Rufus said that it was Kasper’s power or nothing. The next morning, Lisa had to paint his nails red, sharpening the ends into points. She was so weak that she couldn’t even make it out of the basement.

  Hours later, Vini woke her up and asked her to remove a scar from his wrist. It was just a small white mark, but Lisa fainted. Her light glowed and dimmed as she breathed in and out. She was nearly a Shell.

  After this all happened, I went back to that moment. I can nudge the past and the future, just slightly, if I need to. It’s like reaching through a window inside my mind. I can push against the membrane between time, calling out to people.

  I tried to push some of my spare energy into Lisa – enough that she would be able to wake up and crawl outside the lightning barrier. I couldn’t spare more than that. Her faded form did glow a little when she absorbed my energy, but she didn’t wake up.